Update 3 | George Farrugia flies out of Malta hours after MaltaToday breaks story

Corrected on 20 January with amendment to flight details

Pardoned oil trader George Farrugia yesterday afternoon flew out of Malta hours after MaltaToday published new emails showing that Farrugia's cosy relationship with government officials persisted after 2004.

But questioned by MaltaToday, Farrugia’s lawyer Siegfried Borg Cole insisted that the overseas trip had “absolutely nothing to do with the oil case or with the report published by MaltaToday”.

“The trip has been planned for a week,” Borg Cole said.

Borg Cole denied having flown with Farrugia to set up new bank accounts to hold Farrugia’s assets in his name or another name-lender firm’s name.

MaltaToday is informed that Farrugia, who holds a number of foreign bank accounts including a Swiss account, caught an Alitalia flight at 1.05pm to Rome.

Denying that the two were in Switzerland, Borg Cole however did not want to disclose their location or the purpose behind the trip saying that he was bound by confidentiality.

Borg Cole said that Farrugia picked him up at 10.30am and their flight was at around 1pm. He also said that the two heard about the publication of emails while they were at the airport “when someone called George Farrugia”.

Amid growing concern that Farrugia may not return to Malta, MaltaToday is informed that the police may consider issuing a European Arrest Warrant. The police yesterday visited the Farrugia household in the afternoon but the oil trader had already left the island.

Borg Cole said the trip had been planned “for over a week”. According to the Malta Independent, they will be returning this week.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the Cabinet may consider revoking Farrugia’s pardon if police investigations find that the pardoned oil trader failed to honour the conditions of his pardon.

Muscat said that he was not privy to the information that George Farrugia gave to the investigators. "It is not something I am involved in and I will not interfere. It is now up to the police to establish whether he had told the police everything he knew and whether this information which he didn't give constitutes a crime.

"If the investigators find that Farrugia did not honour the conditions of the presidential pardon, I will present the matter to the Cabinet to consider a withdrawal of the pardon."

The energy ministry yesterday suspended civil servant Godwin Sant, formerly head of energy regulation at the Malta Resources Authority, in the wake of MaltaToday reports showing emails in which Sant accepted free UK football tickets from the oil giant Trafigura at the behest of George Farrugia, back in 2009.